Sudden and immediate fame has caught up with Susan Boyle, who lost Britain’s Got Talent Saturday night and checked herself into a hospital on Monday after being escorted by police.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman told the Guardian that “Police were called at approximately 6pm to a central London hotel to doctors assessing a woman under the Mental Health Act. Police and ambulance attended. The woman was taken voluntarily by ambulance to a clinic. At the request of doctors, police accompanied the ambulance.”

If there’s any doubt about her celebrity, Britain’s prime minster, Gordon Brown, said on British TV, “I hope Susan Boyle is OK because she is a really, really nice person and I think she will do well.”

Judge Piers Morgan said on TV that she’s “emotionally drained and exhausted.” “Nobody has had to put up with the kind of attention Susan has had. Nobody could have predicted it.” But he also said Susan is “essentially fine. … She was very tired and hasn’t been sleeping. She has just gone away to have some time to herself and to sleep and eat, doing all the things she hasn’t been able to do in the last week.”

The show’s producers said in a statement that “because of the level of media attention and the speed with which it became a global phenomenon, we will be reviewing all of our policies in relation to psychological treatment,” The Daily Mail reported. That was in response to criticism from a doctor at the clinic where she’s being treated, who said, “The fact that there is consent between the TV company and contestant does not prevent the TV company having a duty of care once that consent has been given.”

about the writer

Andy Dehnart is a journalist who has covered reality television for more than 15 years and created reality blurred in 2000. A member of the Television Critics Association, his writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Playboy, Buzzfeed, and many other publications. Andy, 37, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. More about reality blurred and Andy.

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reality blurred exists to cover television's most under-appreciated genre, reality TV, with original reporting, analysis, criticism, and curated information. It's edited by Andy Dehnart.
reality blurred is regularly updated with reality TV news; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of reality TV shows including Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, The Voice, Top Chef, and many more.
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